journal2

Let's Start At The Very Beginning,
A Very Good Place To Start......

July 6, 2000
       Arrived in Belgrade at 1:30am, barely awake. The mini-bus drove us through endless streets below the sky-scraping apartments of "New Belgrade", and past the all-night kiosques and buildings (some of which were partially if not completely destroyed by the bombarding) of the old city. Bumped through a narrow, deserted street to Kolja's Aunt's apartment. I noted the garbage dumpsters, stray dogs and cats, and closely parked Yugos and Ladas. As we entered the dark, graffitti-decorated lobby of her building, I thought to myself, "where the heck have I come...?"
       We knocked on the door and were met by a lovely woman who thanks to her visits to France to visit her son, speaks French as well as Serbian. She gave me the customary three-cheek kiss and welcomed us in. I liked her instantly. She was in Belgrade for part of the bombing and told me about it as well as the food shortages. To buy milk in Belgrade, you must line up as early as 5am, to buy 1 litre.
       We stayed with her until after breakfast the following morning when my host's father and brother-in-law appeared, in yet another Yugo, to take us home to Bela Crkva. Had my first taste of a Yugoslav breakfast (sausages, loads of bread, yogurt - my favorite of which is pictured below, and fresh fruit juice. I am now completely addicted to apricot nectar.) "kiselo mleko" means "sour milk".

The mountains in the background are Romania! The border is only 11 km away. Note "White Church" on the left.

Arrived in Bela Crkva - pictured to your right - just around lunch-time. How do I describe how different everything felt to me? The streets are dusty and busy and hot and the colour beige kept coming to mind. All the houses have terracotta-tiled roofs, are right on the street, directly beside eachother, and have no front door. You enter via the garage and are suddenly in another world - courtyards with plants and cats and chickens etc. It was like being in Mexico (I suppose). From the outside, there is no way of seeing in or guessing how the people inside live. Maybe this is intentional? Everyone drives Yugos and smokes and laughs a lot. "Hvala" means "thank you" in Serbian.

To find out lots of cool stuff about Bela Crkva ("White Church"), please visit the town's website:

www.belacrkva.co.yu

My first day in Bela Crkva was, to say the least, overwhelming. I met loads of people who all insisted on sitting down with a cold beer to have a long gab with my host. As for me, my shyness and almost complete inability to communicate was quickly deduced to be "cute" and attempts were made to translate whenever possible. I was immediately impressed by how many people here speak English, and how many more are eager to learn. I still feel I missed out of some great jokes though....
That evening, I met Sasa (pronounced Sasha), a close friend of my guide. Sasa owns a local pizzaria called "TRG" which means "town square". Sasa's laugh and sense of humour made my trip all the more enjoyable. The yummy pizzas helped as well. I also met his wife Dinka, a lovely woman with a kind smile, who works at the only successful company for miles, Oktan Oil. The company logo is pictured below.

That night, I was formally introduced to my personal alarm clock, the still un-named rooster (although I quickly thought up several suitable titles for him). Not being a farm girl, I thought roosters woke you up once, at dawn, to milk the cows etc. I was not aware that they squawk every hour on the hour, day or night. By the end of my visit, I was fantasizing about how the aforementioned bird would taste basted. A likeness of him has been preserved forever and can be seen to your left.
I was also introduced to "Barbie", the proud, if clumsy, first-time mother of 4 piglets. One of them looked just like "Babe." I visited them often. "Button" is pictured below. He is being fed by the woman of the house and her grand daughter, Masa (Masha), but more about them later.

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